Latest / Best of the NFL Podcast Network / Breaking Down the Big Week 11 Games
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: And now Move the Sticks with Daniel Jeremiah and Bucky Brooks.
- 0:07Speaker 2: What's up, everybody? Welcome to Move the Sticks. DJ Bucky
- 0:10Speaker 2: ret with you on a recap Monday here, coming off
- 0:15Speaker 2: a short night for me, Chargers home game, night game,
- 0:19Speaker 2: a lot of traffic. Apparently we had the triple header
- 0:21Speaker 2: with be was Clippers concert Chargers night game. So Inglewood
- 0:26Speaker 2: was a little congested getting out of there last night.
- 0:29Speaker 2: Uh don't know who was.
- 0:30Speaker 3: In the concert.
- 0:33Speaker 2: Yeah, everybody stayed to the end. Everybody stayed in. It
- 0:35Speaker 2: was a great atmosphere. Yeah, I bet. And by the way,
- 0:38Speaker 2: Jason's in my ear telling me it's Sabrina Carpenter was
- 0:41Speaker 2: at the was A the LA Forum. So the KIA
- 0:43Speaker 2: form is that what it is? Now? I don't know
- 0:44Speaker 2: it's ah might I think it is?
- 0:47Speaker 4: Yeah, I think it's the key.
- 0:49Speaker 2: Yeah, packed house. We're gonna get to that game. That
- 0:51Speaker 2: second on the list. Today, we're going to start with
- 0:52Speaker 2: what was, you know, literally one of the best matchups
- 0:55Speaker 2: in the regular season we've seen in the last half
- 0:57Speaker 2: dozen years. If you look at where Kansas City was
- 1:00Speaker 2: coming into this game at Buffalo, a game that felt
- 1:03Speaker 2: man Buffalo had to have this for a whole host
- 1:05Speaker 2: of reasons, but just to know that this collision is
- 1:09Speaker 2: coming again into the future. Fascinating game there, Buck, I'll
- 1:12Speaker 2: give you the first word on this one on what
- 1:14Speaker 2: your takeaway.
- 1:15Speaker 1: Was, Look big time, and I'll say we've talked about
- 1:20Speaker 1: Josh Allen playing at a high level before, but this
- 1:23Speaker 1: was big time, a big time performance for him.
- 1:25Speaker 2: Now.
- 1:25Speaker 1: I won't do like the overreaction Monday where everyone is like,
- 1:28Speaker 1: oh my god, he's overtaken Pat Mahomes is the best
- 1:31Speaker 1: player in the league in those things. But what I
- 1:32Speaker 1: will say is the Pat Mahome experiment that the Buffalo
- 1:36Speaker 1: Bills decided to use, meaning take away some of the
- 1:40Speaker 1: notable names, make it maybe a little more comedye on
- 1:43Speaker 1: the perimeter, It has allowed him to really be the
- 1:45Speaker 1: best version of himself. We're seeing Josh Allen do things
- 1:49Speaker 1: that we've seen before, but he's doing it in a
- 1:51Speaker 1: more controlled manner. The running, the passing, utilizing all of
- 1:55Speaker 1: the weapons, managing the game, all of that shows significant
- 1:58Speaker 1: growth and maturity in his game, where he certainly is
- 2:01Speaker 1: deserving of being in the conversation as MVP because he's
- 2:04Speaker 1: playing that well.
- 2:05Speaker 5: Yeah, I think, Look, I don't think it's hyperbole to
- 2:08Speaker 5: say that Josh Allen was the more dangerous player in
- 2:12Speaker 5: this game. When you look at the way that the
- 2:15Speaker 5: Chiefs were still able to get pressure on and twenty
- 2:18Speaker 5: six pressures.
- 2:18Speaker 3: On Josh Allen didn't sack him once.
- 2:21Speaker 5: It just it felt like they were the more explosive team,
- 2:24Speaker 5: certainly down the field in the past game.
- 2:26Speaker 3: I mean dominant really in that category of it.
- 2:29Speaker 5: And for a Chiefs offense that at times has been pedestrian,
- 2:32Speaker 5: you ran up against the team that had a lot
- 2:34Speaker 5: of different ways to go at you, and so much
- 2:37Speaker 5: of that has to do with the number seventeen leading
- 2:39Speaker 5: the way a quarterback. So I was really a fan
- 2:42Speaker 5: of the way that Josh Allen played this game, and
- 2:46Speaker 5: you know, knew when he needed to take off and
- 2:47Speaker 5: go get yards for his team, like you did hear
- 2:50Speaker 5: on this incredible touchdown run that was just kind of
- 2:54Speaker 5: the exclamation point on the whole night for a day
- 2:57Speaker 5: in which you look, he was better than Patrick Mahomes
- 2:59Speaker 5: on this day.
- 3:00Speaker 3: Not to say that he is a better player overall.
- 3:02Speaker 5: I'm glad we get to see these guys go at
- 3:05Speaker 5: it each and every year, and I'm excited to see
- 3:07Speaker 5: him go at it again in the postseason if that
- 3:08Speaker 5: comes to fruition.
- 3:10Speaker 2: Yeah, I just I want to start on the Allen
- 3:12Speaker 2: side of things. You just look at his legacy, what
- 3:14Speaker 2: it looks like if they don't have that miraculously Casey
- 3:18Speaker 2: comeback with. However many seconds were left on the clock.
- 3:21Speaker 2: Uh in that playoff game. How differently we view Josh
- 3:24Speaker 2: Allen And this is literally it is peer. It is
- 3:28Speaker 2: peers with him and Patrick Mahomes if they're able to
- 3:30Speaker 2: finish off that game. But you guys talked about the
- 3:33Speaker 2: athleticism watching the tape on that They were on a
- 3:35Speaker 2: lot of empty runs with Josh Allen. Some of them
- 3:38Speaker 2: are scrambled, some of them are designed runs. But man,
- 3:40Speaker 2: that is deadly. It's like it's like high school football
- 3:43Speaker 2: where you just gonna spread. You're gonna put your biggest
- 3:45Speaker 2: best athlete at quarterback. You're gonna spread the field, try
- 3:48Speaker 2: and you know, get as many defenders away from the
- 3:51Speaker 2: box as you can and then let him just do
- 3:53Speaker 2: his thing. That was that was impressive watching that. On
- 3:57Speaker 2: On the Buffalo side of things, I do want to
- 3:59Speaker 2: when we get to the Bears game a little bit
- 4:01Speaker 2: later on, I do want to talk about scrambling quarterbacks
- 4:04Speaker 2: and how maybe there's some negativity skewed towards Oh, you know,
- 4:09Speaker 2: we need to play on time, play on schedule. If
- 4:11Speaker 2: you're scrambling around, then you don't you know, that's not
- 4:13Speaker 2: why the game's played. I've got some interesting stats on that.
- 4:16Speaker 2: We'll get to that when we get to the Bears thing.
- 4:18Speaker 2: But I do want to get to the chief side
- 4:20Speaker 2: of things here. Patrick Mahomes last year sacked twenty seven
- 4:23Speaker 2: times sixteen games. Patrick Mahomes been sacked twenty two times
- 4:27Speaker 2: and ten games this year. Only sacked a couple times
- 4:30Speaker 2: in this ballgame. But this is an offensive line that's
- 4:32Speaker 2: deteriorating from what they were from as dominant as they
- 4:36Speaker 2: were when he first got going twenty eighteen, those early
- 4:40Speaker 2: Chiefs offenses, which we're averaging I want, I believe two
- 4:43Speaker 2: touchdowns more than this team is averaging. And a lot
- 4:48Speaker 2: of it we've talked about the weaponry or this, that
- 4:50Speaker 2: and the other. This offensive line buck is nothing like
- 4:53Speaker 2: it was early on. Here. The tackles are not good
- 4:57Speaker 2: and it puts a lot of pressure on him and
- 4:59Speaker 2: you're not going to have a vertical passing game if
- 5:01Speaker 2: you can't secure the edges, and that's that's been a big,
- 5:04Speaker 2: big problem.
- 5:05Speaker 1: Yeah, it's been a huge problem because you talk about
- 5:08Speaker 1: they've tried to commit to it. So Wanie Morris playing
- 5:10Speaker 1: on one side, Juwan Taylor who they paid big money
- 5:14Speaker 1: for from the Jaguars to.
- 5:15Speaker 4: Put at the other tackle, like, they have not been
- 5:17Speaker 4: able to secure the edges.
- 5:18Speaker 1: The interview three are solid, but the edges that's problematic
- 5:22Speaker 1: because you're right, DJ, you can't sit in the pocket
- 5:25Speaker 1: for long and push the ball down the field. He's
- 5:27Speaker 1: always under pressure and the rest and so he never
- 5:29Speaker 1: can get comfortable and even though he likes to improvise,
- 5:33Speaker 1: it's still the big part of Pat Mahomes that played
- 5:35Speaker 1: really well on schedule and they lose that part of
- 5:39Speaker 1: the game. And so yeah, it's a big problem going in.
- 5:42Speaker 1: And the Chiefs are different because they don't have a
- 5:45Speaker 1: tie end that they can waste by leaving in protection.
- 5:47Speaker 1: They don't have someone that can say, oh, we're gonna
- 5:49Speaker 1: let you chip and do all these other things their
- 5:51Speaker 1: best when all of the guys are eligible in the route.
- 5:54Speaker 4: It's something that we know Andy Reid will address.
- 5:57Speaker 1: It's been exposed and he'll continue to tweak and refine
- 6:00Speaker 1: how they go about it. But it's a huge issue
- 6:02Speaker 1: and as to one thing that could keep them from going.
- 6:04Speaker 4: To making that three pet that some of us are
- 6:06Speaker 4: pining for.
- 6:08Speaker 5: Look, it does, in a way feel like where this
- 6:11Speaker 5: team was when they ran up in the COVID season
- 6:13Speaker 5: against the Tampa Bay Bucks and lost the Super Bowl
- 6:15Speaker 5: because the locker Bucks absolutely got after him off the
- 6:18Speaker 5: edges right and they went and that's when they went
- 6:21Speaker 5: and made the addition to go get Joan Taylor. And
- 6:23Speaker 5: then they went and made the addition to go get
- 6:25Speaker 5: Orlando Brown, and then that was short lived. And now
- 6:27Speaker 5: they're kind of recycling that process again, and I think
- 6:30Speaker 5: we're kind of back to where they were before.
- 6:32Speaker 3: Now here's the thing.
- 6:33Speaker 5: Kingsley Suwamatilla is not the answer this year, and they
- 6:37Speaker 5: figure out a way for him to be an answer
- 6:39Speaker 5: for them at one of the tackles moving forward. I
- 6:42Speaker 5: would say that's probably at least still a possibility. It
- 6:45Speaker 5: doesn't feel like it's certainly the way that we'll find
- 6:48Speaker 5: them success this year. So how do they minimize that
- 6:50Speaker 5: moving forward? I think is really where you have to
- 6:52Speaker 5: look if you're the Chiefs at this.
- 6:53Speaker 2: Point, Yeah, Well, it's not the last time we're going
- 6:56Speaker 2: to see these teams together. They're going to meet up
- 6:58Speaker 2: again in the postseason and we'll see again. Only one
- 7:01Speaker 2: loss separates them in the lost column, and now Buffalo
- 7:04Speaker 2: has a tiebreaker. So we just to see how this
- 7:06Speaker 2: season unfolds for both these ball clubs going forward. All right,
- 7:09Speaker 2: let's get to the Senna night game that I was
- 7:11Speaker 2: at Chargers and the Cincinnati Bengals. I'll start on the
- 7:14Speaker 2: Charger side of things. You know, calling their games for
- 7:17Speaker 2: seven years, I've seen the Chargers lose this game a
- 7:19Speaker 2: dozen times, if not more, where things start going bad
- 7:23Speaker 2: and they can't stop the bleeding. This was different last night.
- 7:28Speaker 2: They get out to a big lead. Offense was really clicking.
- 7:31Speaker 2: I mean, I thought you had a quarterback and a
- 7:33Speaker 2: coordinator with Herbert and Greg Roman in sinc they were
- 7:37Speaker 2: running the ball with the you know, just in terms
- 7:39Speaker 2: of committing to the run. But then they were going
- 7:42Speaker 2: heavy boxes play action and hitting shots Will Disley down
- 7:46Speaker 2: the steam. You had Quinton Johnson getting another touchdown, but
- 7:50Speaker 2: they were just loading up the box. And then they're
- 7:53Speaker 2: getting a little pull from the second level off play action,
- 7:57Speaker 2: and then they're letting Herbert attack vertically and then Herbert
- 7:59Speaker 2: using his legs has been a nice component to this offense.
- 8:02Speaker 2: So anyways, all clicking second half, they get out of rhythm,
- 8:06Speaker 2: they can't find it. Herbert has a fumble on a run,
- 8:09Speaker 2: he misses some throws, the defense has given up points. It's,
- 8:12Speaker 2: you know, Joe Burrow's playing out of his mind as
- 8:14Speaker 2: he has all season long, and just felt it slipping away.
- 8:18Speaker 2: They get a couple miskicks, but then when they had
- 8:20Speaker 2: to have a drive, you know Herbert can can do
- 8:23Speaker 2: it within you know, two three plays. It's just really
- 8:26Speaker 2: two throws to Lad McConkey, who's been excellent and who's
- 8:30Speaker 2: someone I think is going to be a high, high,
- 8:32Speaker 2: high end two, if not a lower one.
- 8:36Speaker 3: But Buck.
- 8:37Speaker 2: I was watching them, and I've said this for a
- 8:40Speaker 2: few weeks now to Money up there in the booth
- 8:43Speaker 2: is when I watch this Chargers team, it feels like
- 8:45Speaker 2: I'm watching the Lions of like a year or two ago. Man,
- 8:48Speaker 2: like they are. You can see where this is headed,
- 8:50Speaker 2: and they're going to get some more skill around this group.
- 8:54Speaker 2: But man, it's exciting to see. This is kind of
- 8:56Speaker 2: the ground floor and it's it's going to be a
- 8:58Speaker 2: playoff team when they're here on year one.
- 9:01Speaker 1: So the comments that I heard after the game, I
- 9:05Speaker 1: heard Joey Bosa talk about like their culture and how
- 9:07Speaker 1: they believe that the work and the preparation that they
- 9:10Speaker 1: do puts them in a position to win games, and
- 9:12Speaker 1: they feel like something specialist brewing hearing the other comments
- 9:16Speaker 1: from some of the other players saying that in the
- 9:18Speaker 1: past we have lost this game, but we just know
- 9:20Speaker 1: that we're so connected and so together that we were
- 9:22Speaker 1: going to find a way to win it.
- 9:24Speaker 4: To me, they are.
- 9:25Speaker 1: All in on their leader, and that connectivity between players
- 9:29Speaker 1: and coach is essential. The fact that they believe in
- 9:31Speaker 1: Jim Harbor and he's done a really good job of
- 9:33Speaker 1: creating an environment where they do buy into the work,
- 9:37Speaker 1: the toughness, the physicality in those things. DJ, they don't
- 9:40Speaker 1: even have the pieces of the puzzle yet, right, So
- 9:41Speaker 1: you talked about, you know the guys they brought over
- 9:44Speaker 1: lab McConkie.
- 9:44Speaker 4: They got JK.
- 9:45Speaker 1: Dobb and Gus Everards and all those guys, but they
- 9:47Speaker 1: haven't upgraded. They've tried to flush out the salary cap
- 9:50Speaker 1: situation and just win with what they could. So when
- 9:53Speaker 1: this team is really constructed the way that they want
- 9:56Speaker 1: it to be, It's gonna be a problem. And that energy,
- 10:00Speaker 1: that attitude, that toughness that they bring it certainly is
- 10:03Speaker 1: going to be a thorn in the side of the
- 10:04Speaker 1: other opponents in the AFC West.
- 10:06Speaker 5: And I would look at it as you know, all right,
- 10:09Speaker 5: you've is you make the analogy with the Lions DJ,
- 10:12Speaker 5: It's like, okay, well, how can you hold on to
- 10:15Speaker 5: the majority of this and push it forward? And I
- 10:17Speaker 5: think one of the big, you know, things that you're
- 10:18Speaker 5: gonna have to hold on to is Jesse Minter, defensive
- 10:21Speaker 5: coordinator for the Chargers, has just done a phenomenal job.
- 10:23Speaker 3: I mean, look, he's got some great players back there.
- 10:25Speaker 5: I get that, but man, he is who ordinated this
- 10:28Speaker 5: this unit very well.
- 10:30Speaker 3: I mean, like generated thirty six pressures.
- 10:33Speaker 5: They generated pressure on Joe Burrow almost seventy percent of
- 10:37Speaker 5: his pass attempts back there, Which kind of brings me
- 10:40Speaker 5: to the point for Cincinnati, like they're not altogether in
- 10:43Speaker 5: much different of a spot than the Kansas City Chiefs
- 10:45Speaker 5: were after their Super Bowl run. Remember the year before
- 10:47Speaker 5: the Bengals went to the Super Bowl, they kind of
- 10:49Speaker 5: remade that offensive line made a bunch of those those
- 10:53Speaker 5: free agent acquisitions, but now it feels like they're kind
- 10:56Speaker 5: of back in a spot where they're giving up pressures
- 10:58Speaker 5: all over the place, Burrows taking hits and he's got
- 11:01Speaker 5: to be superhuman back there trying to complete some of
- 11:03Speaker 5: these passes under duress.
- 11:05Speaker 3: That's just not sustainable. And we're going to be in.
- 11:07Speaker 5: A position here where you're getting your quarterback knocked around
- 11:10Speaker 5: again and the last thing you want to do is
- 11:12Speaker 5: see him, you know, have to miss time like he
- 11:15Speaker 5: did each of the last couple of years. So you know,
- 11:18Speaker 5: as you look at that, it's kind of like a
- 11:19Speaker 5: cause and effect Chargers again, exposing where the Bengals are
- 11:23Speaker 5: from a pass protection situation. And you know, the Chargers
- 11:28Speaker 5: defense has just flat out really good and would be
- 11:29Speaker 5: a big reason why they are a playoff team. But
- 11:31Speaker 5: here's the thing that was a little concerning to me, guys,
- 11:33Speaker 5: and I'd love to get your opinion on this. You've
- 11:35Speaker 5: listened to all the comments from Bengals players after the game,
- 11:39Speaker 5: Jamar Chase, maybe with some of.
- 11:41Speaker 3: The most you know, explosive.
- 11:46Speaker 5: It feels like a team that's unraveling, you know, and look,
- 11:49Speaker 5: maybe some of what he's saying isn't wrong. But do
- 11:52Speaker 5: you go out there and say it, like, yeah, yeah,
- 11:54Speaker 5: you paid McPherson go out and make the dang kicks.
- 11:56Speaker 5: I get it, he didn't make the kicks. You know,
- 11:59Speaker 5: you pay Zach Taylor to help get this team in
- 12:01Speaker 5: a framework to go finish games.
- 12:03Speaker 3: They're not finishing games right now.
- 12:05Speaker 5: But it's not like you and you and you, it's
- 12:08Speaker 5: it's us, and that to me feels like that's not
- 12:11Speaker 5: the messaging that's happening in Cincinnati, and there's no way
- 12:14Speaker 5: they recover from this if it keeps getting singled out, you,
- 12:17Speaker 5: singled out you.
- 12:19Speaker 3: All I got to do is worry about me. That's
- 12:21Speaker 3: that is not one.
- 12:23Speaker 2: So I wouldn't plan on going into this direction. This
- 12:25Speaker 2: might take us a minute here, so I have to
- 12:28Speaker 2: ask for some patience. But if we were talking on
- 12:31Speaker 2: here the last couple of weeks and Buck, I know
- 12:34Speaker 2: we've had this conversation about Ben Johnson and we've made
- 12:38Speaker 2: the case that hey, unless he gets blown away, just
- 12:41Speaker 2: just just make Detroit pay it, you know, head coach
- 12:44Speaker 2: money to stay as the offensive coordinator because it's just
- 12:48Speaker 2: so hard to find the right fit for you to
- 12:50Speaker 2: be successful. And if you look at the jobs that
- 12:51Speaker 2: might pop up, and we know who the where those
- 12:53Speaker 2: jobs are, we know who the quarterbacks for those teams are,
- 12:56Speaker 2: and there's some intriguing names. There's nothing like Joe Burrow.
- 13:00Speaker 2: Burrow and seeing it in person. You mentioned those pressure
- 13:03Speaker 2: numbers rhet He is an assassin. He is a stone
- 13:06Speaker 2: cold killer to the point where as great as Josh
- 13:09Speaker 2: Allen and his greatest Mahomes, both those guys are I'm
- 13:13Speaker 2: not if you give me equal talent, I'm not. I
- 13:17Speaker 2: don't know that I'm picking against Joe Burrow. So if
- 13:19Speaker 2: i'm if, I'm the Bengals, and I'm never going to
- 13:22Speaker 2: advocate for anybody to lose their job. And I think
- 13:24Speaker 2: there's a lot of other issues with this team, but
- 13:26Speaker 2: if they did make a change, to me, that is
- 13:30Speaker 2: easily the most desirable job that would be available. And
- 13:34Speaker 2: if I was Ben Johnson, I would call them before
- 13:36Speaker 2: they called me.
- 13:38Speaker 1: Here's the thing, though, I thought they extended Zach Taylor
- 13:40Speaker 1: where it would make it almost cost prohibitive.
- 13:43Speaker 4: Knowing the Bengals, and that's.
- 13:44Speaker 2: Not the way they normally do business, and that's that's
- 13:47Speaker 2: not business.
- 13:48Speaker 4: Will I will say this about what Red is talking about.
- 13:51Speaker 1: And I would say the comments that come off as selfish, no,
- 13:54Speaker 1: they are selfish from Jamar Chase. Here's what happens when
- 13:58Speaker 1: you run the risk of not playing pain your players
- 14:01Speaker 1: before you get into the season. So now all of
- 14:04Speaker 1: those feelings of feeling disrespected and that stuff, you're seeing
- 14:09Speaker 1: it not in their performance, but the body language and
- 14:12Speaker 1: the actions of T Higgins and Jamar Chase. At some point,
- 14:18Speaker 1: you want to try and keep the family together and
- 14:20Speaker 1: keep the family happy. And I know we're talking about
- 14:22Speaker 1: businesses business, but I feel like they're disjointed because of
- 14:26Speaker 1: contract negotiations that have gone awry. And now you're just
- 14:29Speaker 1: having them say, well, I don't really care. I'm trying
- 14:31Speaker 1: to get mine, I want to be healthy, I want
- 14:32Speaker 1: to put up numbers, and then whatever happens to the
- 14:35Speaker 1: team happens with the team. And that's not a way
- 14:37Speaker 1: that a team can be successful in this eraor yeah.
- 14:40Speaker 2: Look, look guys, I mean this is a situation for
- 14:42Speaker 2: the Bengals. It's just man, they've lost so many close games,
- 14:46Speaker 2: and you know, I think you're seeing some of the
- 14:48Speaker 2: frustration that comes from that. Look at the Ravens game,
- 14:51Speaker 2: you look at the Chiefs game. You look at this game.
- 14:53Speaker 2: They've had opportunities, haven't been able to get it done.
- 14:56Speaker 2: So I think that's why all this stuff is really
- 14:58Speaker 2: starting to bubble up. All right, let's keep it moving
- 15:01Speaker 2: here and let's get to another big time game, big
- 15:04Speaker 2: time performance by the Pittsburgh Steelers. They take care of
- 15:06Speaker 2: the Baltimore Ravens in a field goal fest. For the Steelers,
- 15:11Speaker 2: they didn't finish drives, didn't get things done the way
- 15:15Speaker 2: they wanted to. But this is a game ret where
- 15:17Speaker 2: they controlled the clock, They had the ball for thirty
- 15:20Speaker 2: six minutes, twenty two minutes for the Baltimore Ravens, and
- 15:24Speaker 2: Baltimore penalties twelve turnovers three. There's your ball game.
- 15:30Speaker 3: There's really no other way to describe it.
- 15:32Speaker 5: This was a mistake game, full of mistakes for the
- 15:36Speaker 5: Ravens and uncharacteristic like mistakes. You would talk about the
- 15:38Speaker 5: turnovers and the penalty shore, but how about the two
- 15:40Speaker 5: misses in the second quarter for Justin Tucker, the most
- 15:44Speaker 5: accurate kicker and NFL history, is now barely middle of
- 15:49Speaker 5: the road in field goal made percentage so far this season.
- 15:52Speaker 5: I mean miss back to back kicks, Sure not gimme's
- 15:55Speaker 5: forty seven and fifty yarder, but those were I mean,
- 15:58Speaker 5: in Tucker's landscape, those are gimmes and so he's had
- 16:02Speaker 5: some misses now this year. And it starts, oh boy,
- 16:06Speaker 5: there's a drop obviously concentration drop for Zave Flowers. He
- 16:10Speaker 5: made up for it with a touchdown later, but it
- 16:12Speaker 5: just it felt like from the jump Derek Henry fumbles
- 16:15Speaker 5: on his second carry and it was like, holy smokes,
- 16:18Speaker 5: you know that the onsought of negativity was just really
- 16:23Speaker 5: hard for the Ravens to overcome, even though they went
- 16:26Speaker 5: down and scored and we're leading at the half and
- 16:28Speaker 5: just just couldn't find a way to take advantage of
- 16:31Speaker 5: the Steelers kind of keeping them in the game and
- 16:34Speaker 5: ultimately Steelers find a way to win.
- 16:36Speaker 1: Yeah, this is frustrated for the Baltimore Ravens because this
- 16:39Speaker 1: is a team that has been so good this season,
- 16:41Speaker 1: but the issues that have hurt them in the games
- 16:43Speaker 1: that they've lost are the dbos, don't beat ourselves, turnovers, penalties.
- 16:48Speaker 4: Big plays allowed. When you do that, you're gonna lose games.
- 16:50Speaker 1: Twelve pen is too many penalties, too many self inflicted mistakes,
- 16:54Speaker 1: three turnovers plus two additional miskicks which we could really
- 16:57Speaker 1: count as turnovers. It's just hard to win when you
- 17:00Speaker 1: have so many mistakes. And they'll look at the tape
- 17:03Speaker 1: and they're going to kick themselves knowing they didn't give
- 17:05Speaker 1: themselves a chance to win because they had so many
- 17:09Speaker 1: egregious errors that they have to eliminate. And so the
- 17:12Speaker 1: next time they see the Pittsburgh Steelers, we'll see if
- 17:14Speaker 1: they can tighten it up. But the Stealers feel so
- 17:17Speaker 1: confident whenever they see the Baltimore Ravens and Lamar Jackson
- 17:21Speaker 1: for whatever reason, they just have a hold over this
- 17:24Speaker 1: team and the Bravens somehow have to get past it.
- 17:27Speaker 2: And a lot of times it's games like this one.
- 17:30Speaker 2: Remember remember last year all the drop passes that Baltimore
- 17:33Speaker 2: had at Pittsburgh as they Flowers had to drop touchdown
- 17:36Speaker 2: in that game last year. I mean they they just
- 17:39Speaker 2: something about the Pittsburgh Steelers brings out some funky stuff
- 17:43Speaker 2: from the Ravens. And I do think there is I
- 17:45Speaker 2: think with Lamar Jackson and the rest of the league,
- 17:47Speaker 2: or most of the league, I should say there's a
- 17:49Speaker 2: fear factor. You don't see a lot of them, and
- 17:52Speaker 2: when you do it's like, oh gosh, okay, hey, be disciplined,
- 17:55Speaker 2: don't get caught out of your lanes. You're cautious to
- 17:57Speaker 2: rush the quarterback, you know, you just there's a fear
- 18:01Speaker 2: factor there. And I think familiarity buck, I know, I
- 18:05Speaker 2: know your Dodgers beat my Podres. But the but the
- 18:07Speaker 2: Potteries don't have any There's no awe, there's no fear factory.
- 18:12Speaker 2: If they see him, they see them all the time.
- 18:14Speaker 2: So like it takes away some of that. It takes
- 18:17Speaker 2: away some of that when you have a team of
- 18:19Speaker 2: foe that you're so familiar with.
- 18:21Speaker 1: Well, now, yeah, because they go after him, they say
- 18:23Speaker 1: in pressure they come after him.
- 18:24Speaker 2: They don't, Uh, they're not scared on their heels like,
- 18:28Speaker 2: oh what's he going to do?
- 18:30Speaker 4: They're not at all.
- 18:31Speaker 1: But I think the thing that stood up to me
- 18:33Speaker 1: was uh, Mike Tomlin playing the motivational tactics, first sending
- 18:37Speaker 1: Patrick Queen out for the coin toss and making sure
- 18:41Speaker 1: he praised them at everything, talking about one man's trash
- 18:44Speaker 1: is another man's treasure. You knew Patrick Queen was going
- 18:47Speaker 1: to be on ten, and they come up with that
- 18:48Speaker 1: big turnover, uh to rip the ball away and to
- 18:51Speaker 1: make the play that he had to make to kind
- 18:53Speaker 1: of seal the game is huge. And so when you
- 18:55Speaker 1: get a motivated guy like that, that's exactly what you want.
- 18:58Speaker 1: And so the Pittsburgh still is I have a young
- 19:00Speaker 1: collection of playmakers that are emerging. Look, they people will
- 19:04Speaker 1: not talk about them being the best team in the AFC,
- 19:07Speaker 1: but man, they gonna be a tough team to deal
- 19:10Speaker 1: within the postseason because they just play a stout that
- 19:12Speaker 1: is so different than everybody else is they ugly up
- 19:16Speaker 1: the game and they know how to win these ugly games.
- 19:19Speaker 5: And that was the other thing I'll go back and
- 19:21Speaker 5: just kind of clarify again. You know, you felt like
- 19:24Speaker 5: the Ravens, despite all their issues early in the game,
- 19:27Speaker 5: We're going to take the lead into the half seven
- 19:29Speaker 5: to six after scoring a touchdown late. But then they
- 19:32Speaker 5: get the ball back and they fumble deep in their
- 19:35Speaker 5: own end and you give the Steelers a chance with
- 19:38Speaker 5: just seconds remaining in the first half, a chance to
- 19:40Speaker 5: kick the field goal from Chris Boswell, and then end
- 19:43Speaker 5: up still having the lead nine to seven at the
- 19:46Speaker 5: end of the first thirty minutes. Like that was so
- 19:49Speaker 5: descriptive of the way this game ended. Up going for Baltimore.
- 19:53Speaker 5: Like every time you'd find a way to generate some positivity,
- 19:57Speaker 5: something would pull you back. They two steps forward, one
- 19:59Speaker 5: step back, and it just ultimately it came back to
- 20:02Speaker 5: bite him.
- 20:03Speaker 3: So this was Pittsburgh's first.
- 20:05Speaker 5: Division game of the season, so we've gotten much more
- 20:08Speaker 5: of this still to come. But man, Ravens will look
- 20:12Speaker 5: to turn the tide and they get him in Baltimore.
- 20:19Speaker 2: And I don't know that it was a cruise to
- 20:21Speaker 2: victory for the Green Bay Packers. It was definitely not
- 20:25Speaker 2: a cruise for the Chicago Bears to defeat. But this
- 20:29Speaker 2: was a game I teased this earlier, and I want
- 20:31Speaker 2: to lead with this because I want to start first
- 20:33Speaker 2: of all, on the Caleb Williams side of things. In
- 20:36Speaker 2: this game they lose, Bears lose twenty nineteen. I start first.
- 20:41Speaker 2: They if they make a kick in this game and
- 20:45Speaker 2: they don't just completely flub on the Hail Mary against Washington,
- 20:51Speaker 2: these are two signature comeback wins for Caleb Williams. Late
- 20:56Speaker 2: drives to lead the Bears to victory. As a Bears
- 20:59Speaker 2: team that's six and four. If that's the case, Man,
- 21:01Speaker 2: the vibe is so different. It just shows you how
- 21:05Speaker 2: narrow the line is here between being a hero and
- 21:08Speaker 2: a goat. But Buck, I want to get to you
- 21:10Speaker 2: on this point because this is a saucing nug for you.
- 21:13Speaker 2: I was looking this up because I was thinking about
- 21:15Speaker 2: just playing on time and the importance of playing on
- 21:17Speaker 2: time and playing within structure, and how much we talk
- 21:21Speaker 2: about that and how that had been. You know, it's
- 21:23Speaker 2: a lot of discussion about Caleb. It needs to get
- 21:26Speaker 2: more comfortable in that regard. So I said, okay, well,
- 21:28Speaker 2: if we're going to kind of label guys who scramble
- 21:31Speaker 2: around as maybe that's not the way you win games
- 21:33Speaker 2: in this league, let me give you the top scramblers
- 21:36Speaker 2: in the NFL who scrambled the most. Number one is
- 21:39Speaker 2: Jayden Daniels, followed by Brock Perdy, Bo Nicks, Lamar Jackson,
- 21:42Speaker 2: Josh Allen, Jalen Hurts, Patrick Mahomes. Those are the top
- 21:45Speaker 2: scramblers in the NFL. So, and all those guys, even
- 21:50Speaker 2: with Bonix being a young player, they're all those quarterbacks
- 21:53Speaker 2: are playing at a very high level. And if you
- 21:54Speaker 2: were to go longer on that list, I could make
- 21:57Speaker 2: a case that ten of the eleven are playing at
- 21:59Speaker 2: a high level. Guys that are scrambling around. So I
- 22:01Speaker 2: don't know that we need to remove scrambling from Caleb.
- 22:04Speaker 2: I think what we saw in this game, which was encouraging,
- 22:06Speaker 2: which was whatever you're going to do, do it, you know,
- 22:09Speaker 2: don't get The worst thing you can do is just
- 22:11Speaker 2: get stuck back there. So if you want to get
- 22:14Speaker 2: the ball out your hands quick, get it out of
- 22:16Speaker 2: your hands quick. If you don't like it, then go
- 22:18Speaker 2: use your legs and make something happen. But be more decisive.
- 22:21Speaker 2: And I thought that was a positive take away from
- 22:24Speaker 2: me with this Bears game. I don't think you need to.
- 22:26Speaker 2: I think there was some part of him maybe and
- 22:28Speaker 2: I don't know if they're telling this or maybe just subconsciously,
- 22:30Speaker 2: it's like I've got to put my feet and cement
- 22:32Speaker 2: back here to prove that I'm something, you know, And
- 22:35Speaker 2: I'm like, that's not the way the NFL plays anymore. Man,
- 22:37Speaker 2: you don't have to do that now.
- 22:39Speaker 1: What's interesting is his comments after the game when you
- 22:42Speaker 1: talked about Thomas Brown in the Biggest Change, and he
- 22:44Speaker 1: just talked about Thomas Brown's decisiveness, decisiveness with his play
- 22:49Speaker 1: calls in and out the huddle, the.
- 22:51Speaker 4: Way that he seeks the calls he just said.
- 22:53Speaker 1: It was more up tempo, on pace in terms of
- 22:57Speaker 1: just the operation in and out the huddle. Like Thomas
- 23:00Speaker 1: knew exactly what he wanted to get to and it
- 23:02Speaker 1: allowed him to be more decisive, which is my why
- 23:05Speaker 1: you may have see him, why we may have witnessed
- 23:08Speaker 1: a more decisive player inside and outside the pocket. When
- 23:11Speaker 1: you take a player like Kayleb Williams, you have to
- 23:13Speaker 1: take him knowing the player that you got at USC
- 23:16Speaker 1: is the player that is going to show up in Chicago,
- 23:18Speaker 1: and your job is to build around what he showed
- 23:21Speaker 1: at SC and if he plays like he played yesterday.
- 23:24Speaker 4: Then you continue to build it out.
- 23:26Speaker 1: But it's about teaching him how to be decisive, making
- 23:29Speaker 1: decisions fast and going with it.
- 23:31Speaker 4: Don't make him something that he's not.
- 23:33Speaker 3: Yeah looking, you know.
- 23:34Speaker 5: On the Packers side of things, you know, they come
- 23:36Speaker 5: up with a win here, remain within striking distance of
- 23:39Speaker 5: the Detroit Lions. But the more I kind of watched
- 23:42Speaker 5: you know, Green Bay and then Detroit, which we'll get
- 23:44Speaker 5: to here in just a couple of minutes, it does
- 23:46Speaker 5: feel like the gap is fairly significant there, especially you know,
- 23:50Speaker 5: with the fact that Jordan Love can't quite get rid
- 23:54Speaker 5: of these turnovers. He's now had an interception in every
- 23:58Speaker 5: game this season, and it just happened to come down
- 24:01Speaker 5: in the red area. Intercepted near the goal line, they're
- 24:05Speaker 5: thwarting a scoring opportunity. And then actually the Packers turned
- 24:07Speaker 5: it over on downs down in the red area as well.
- 24:10Speaker 5: So for them to be a viable post season contender
- 24:15Speaker 5: that you can trust, it does feel like they've got
- 24:17Speaker 5: to find a way here to get this offense to
- 24:21Speaker 5: finish with points on the board and not with those
- 24:24Speaker 5: some of those costly turnovers in there where you are
- 24:27Speaker 5: taking away the opportunity to score some points.
- 24:30Speaker 3: So otherwise like it was a fairly efficient day. They
- 24:32Speaker 3: didn't have the ball very much.
- 24:34Speaker 5: Only twenty three minutes of top in this one for
- 24:37Speaker 5: green Bay and just seventeen pass attempts.
- 24:39Speaker 3: For Jordan Love.
- 24:40Speaker 5: So they figure out a way to minimize those turnovers,
- 24:44Speaker 5: and I think you'll have a much better opportunity for
- 24:46Speaker 5: Green Bay to try to make a run at this thing.
- 24:49Speaker 2: Yeah, I looked that they gave up nineteen points. I
- 24:51Speaker 2: don't want to ding their defense, but Chicago was nine
- 24:53Speaker 2: to sixteen on third down and this has been an
- 24:55Speaker 2: offense that is obviously massively struggling. So that was a
- 25:00Speaker 2: little bit of a concern on the on the Green
- 25:01Speaker 2: Bay side of things that weren't able to get off
- 25:03Speaker 2: the field and weren't able to get off the field
- 25:05Speaker 2: late either bailed out by you know, the block field
- 25:07Speaker 2: goal attempt. But that that you know, and we'll get it.
- 25:10Speaker 2: This will get us into this next game here before
- 25:12Speaker 2: we get into Jacksonville Detroit. But just go around the
- 25:15Speaker 2: horn real quick, because I'll get both your takes on it.
- 25:17Speaker 2: To me, it feels like NFC Detroit's in a tier
- 25:20Speaker 2: all by themselves nobody. I think they're playing much better
- 25:24Speaker 2: in a belt. I think Philadelphia is behind them. I
- 25:27Speaker 2: think I don't think there's anybody close to Philadelphia. Is
- 25:32Speaker 2: the point I'm gonna make, Like, I feel like it's
- 25:34Speaker 2: those two teams, however much distance we want to disagree on,
- 25:36Speaker 2: like how much difference there is between Detroit and Philly.
- 25:39Speaker 2: That might be closer, like you said, but but I
- 25:41Speaker 2: think after those two teams, it feels like there's I
- 25:43Speaker 2: don't think Green Bay. I think they're significantly Minnesota.
- 25:47Speaker 4: You don't feel like Minnesota.
- 25:48Speaker 2: I don't trust Minnesota. We'll get to Minnesota. There's something
- 25:51Speaker 2: there that I don't trust, and it really is more
- 25:53Speaker 2: about their defense. When their defense plays the better quarterbacks,
- 25:57Speaker 2: I think that that sell out, you know, way of
- 25:59Speaker 2: playing defense against top tier quarterbacks is going to be
- 26:02Speaker 2: a dangerous way to live. But that's my opinion there.
- 26:07Speaker 2: But do you think those two are cut above everybody else?
- 26:09Speaker 3: Buck?
- 26:10Speaker 1: Yeah, the only thing I would say, I think those
- 26:12Speaker 1: who are definitely there. I put Minnesota right there with
- 26:14Speaker 1: Philadelphia because I would say that their defense being able
- 26:18Speaker 1: to create turnovers in those things, and it is a
- 26:20Speaker 1: Gopher broke style of play I'm more of. I think
- 26:25Speaker 1: their postseason hopes hange on Sam Donald's play and watching
- 26:29Speaker 1: him a week ago and then talking to some of
- 26:31Speaker 1: the people around the building. They just said like, hey,
- 26:34Speaker 1: if he plays within himself, we can win and knock
- 26:36Speaker 1: off any team. He just has to make sure that
- 26:38Speaker 1: he stays within the boundaries his limitations. If he does that,
- 26:41Speaker 1: they can win. So I'm just more worried about Sam
- 26:44Speaker 1: Donald in the postseason.
- 26:45Speaker 4: Can he just continue to be the player that he was?
- 26:47Speaker 1: The player there was Yesterday's certainly good enough to help
- 26:50Speaker 1: them win against any team.
- 26:51Speaker 4: That's the only thing.
- 26:52Speaker 1: But I think Minnesota, Philly and Detroit, but Detroit way
- 26:55Speaker 1: up there over the other two.
- 26:57Speaker 2: RTT you want in on that just in terms of know,
- 27:00Speaker 2: what do you think the pecking order is there? Real
- 27:02Speaker 2: quick and then we'll keep it moving.
- 27:04Speaker 5: Yeah, I think you guys are right on the Other
- 27:06Speaker 5: thing that I would say, and it's a huge if,
- 27:08Speaker 5: and it's a major caveat, is that there's gonna be
- 27:11Speaker 5: a team out west in whether it's the Cardinals, whether
- 27:15Speaker 5: it's the Rams, it is all of the are all
- 27:17Speaker 5: there healthy, and then the Niners, Like I just don't
- 27:20Speaker 5: know if I'm ready to count them out either. I
- 27:22Speaker 5: feel like there's gonna be a team in the West.
- 27:24Speaker 5: And man, when Matthew Stafford is on like he was
- 27:28Speaker 5: with Kup and Nakua yesterday, that's that's some good offense
- 27:32Speaker 5: out there in the NFC.
- 27:33Speaker 3: I put that right up there with everybody else.
- 27:35Speaker 2: Yeah, And not just to put a bow on it.
- 27:37Speaker 2: With Minnesota Golf and Stafford the two quarterbacks who beat them,
- 27:40Speaker 2: And that's what I worry about, is those the type
- 27:42Speaker 2: of quarterbacks you're going to run into in the postseason
- 27:44Speaker 2: and you want to sell out and play that aggressive,
- 27:45Speaker 2: They'll make you pay with really good quarterbacks. Jacksonville Detroit
- 27:49Speaker 2: buck full disclosure when I you know, when I look
- 27:51Speaker 2: at all the games and I'm trying to figure out
- 27:53Speaker 2: what I'm gonna watch, and I prioritize I did not
- 27:56Speaker 2: watch lick a film of this game, because I was
- 27:59Speaker 2: just going to let you take the floor and tell
- 28:00Speaker 2: me what you saw in person. I wasn't gonna subject
- 28:02Speaker 2: myself to that.
- 28:04Speaker 1: Okay, So what I saw was every year in the
- 28:08Speaker 1: college football season, you put a game on the schedule
- 28:10Speaker 1: where you're just trying to work through the kings. You
- 28:12Speaker 1: know you're gonna beat the team, but you're trying to
- 28:14Speaker 1: work everything out. I feel like Detroit put the Jacks
- 28:17Speaker 1: on the schedule to do just that. The way that
- 28:19Speaker 1: they attack the Jack wall from beginning to end.
- 28:22Speaker 4: From beginning to in.
- 28:24Speaker 1: Yeah, this is an old school a let's bring them in,
- 28:27Speaker 1: we're gonna pay.
- 28:28Speaker 4: Them, fly the way, give them a buffet, pre and post, or.
- 28:30Speaker 1: We're gonna beat them down. That's how they did it.
- 28:32Speaker 1: But in reality, here's what I'll say about the Detroit Lions.
- 28:35Speaker 1: I believe the Detroit Lions are a perfectly constructed team.
- 28:39Speaker 1: To be a title contender. On offense, they can play
- 28:42Speaker 1: a variety of ways that gives.
- 28:44Speaker 4: Them multiple paths to be able to win.
- 28:45Speaker 1: They can run it, they can throw it, they can
- 28:47Speaker 1: play with power, they can play with finesse. Defensively, they've
- 28:50Speaker 1: really come on and the loss of eight and Hutchinson
- 28:53Speaker 1: is significant, but they found a way to do. What
- 28:55Speaker 1: we talked about last week is rush the quarterback by committee,
- 28:59Speaker 1: but in the back end they are terrific.
- 29:02Speaker 4: Brian Branch is everything that we thought he did.
- 29:04Speaker 1: I don't know why he didn't go in the first round,
- 29:06Speaker 1: but the guy plays like a first rounder all day,
- 29:09Speaker 1: every day. And then Kirby Joseph who plays alongside of them,
- 29:12Speaker 1: They may be the best safety tenem in the business
- 29:14Speaker 1: because they do a great job of working off of
- 29:16Speaker 1: one another.
- 29:17Speaker 5: So the way that I look at this now is yeah,
- 29:19Speaker 5: I mean you painted the picture.
- 29:21Speaker 3: That's that's what happened in the game.
- 29:22Speaker 5: The Lions far superior on paper and in this game
- 29:25Speaker 5: right now, what do you do? What are we doing
- 29:28Speaker 5: it for the Jaguars here? So how do we figure
- 29:30Speaker 5: this thing out?
- 29:31Speaker 3: Right? What do you build around?
- 29:34Speaker 5: If you look at the pieces that you just that
- 29:36Speaker 5: are must haves moving forward next year. Trevor Lawrence certainly
- 29:40Speaker 5: tied to him after the big contract. Brian Thomas has
- 29:43Speaker 5: proved to be a major player this past year. Is
- 29:46Speaker 5: the first round draft pick. I think outside of that,
- 29:50Speaker 5: I mean, you're hoping Anton Harrison can be a guy
- 29:52Speaker 5: at tackle after being a first round pick in twenty three.
- 29:54Speaker 5: But like and then on defense is Trayvon Walker and
- 29:58Speaker 5: Josh Heines Allen mm hm am I missing anybody that
- 30:02Speaker 5: that we must have?
- 30:04Speaker 4: Right?
- 30:04Speaker 2: Here's my here's my question. Here's my question. So if
- 30:08Speaker 2: you're the Jags and the highest you have, the two
- 30:11Speaker 2: highest rated players on your board are ones a wide
- 30:15Speaker 2: receiver and one's a corner? Who are you taking? Trick questions?
- 30:19Speaker 2: Just one player? You're taking Travis Hunter? And now we
- 30:23Speaker 2: have Travis with BTJ out there as well as we're
- 30:26Speaker 2: getting him some work on the defensive side of the ball.
- 30:29Speaker 2: What's that, Coach Belichick? What was that play called? Okay,
- 30:31Speaker 2: I got it all of a sudden, Now, Jags, this
- 30:34Speaker 2: sounds a little different and looks a little all sudden.
- 30:37Speaker 2: Trevors there, that would be that.
- 30:43Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm with you, But here's what I'll say. I'll
- 30:45Speaker 1: say this like with a little envy sitting on one
- 30:48Speaker 1: sideline looking over the other. The complete buy in that
- 30:53Speaker 1: the Alliance have had, from top to bottom, front office,
- 30:56Speaker 1: coaching staff, the players that they have. There's a clear
- 31:00Speaker 1: vision of how they want to play. There's a clear
- 31:02Speaker 1: vision of the type of players that they want and
- 31:05Speaker 1: their style. You feel, DJ, it's a rare opportunity where
- 31:09Speaker 1: you get a chance to see the backups go in.
- 31:11Speaker 1: I guess so when the backups went in, the energy
- 31:14Speaker 1: and the attitude did not change. They were out to
- 31:17Speaker 1: literally bust the clock. And I mean, I'm just mo.
- 31:20Speaker 1: Gay comes in in the fourth corner, He's running. I'm like,
- 31:22Speaker 1: who is this? And oh, by the way, as fast
- 31:26Speaker 1: as you think Jamiir Gibbs is, he is that much.
- 31:31Speaker 1: He might be the quickest running back I've ever seen
- 31:34Speaker 1: in terms of on that turf.
- 31:36Speaker 4: He is unbelievable.
- 31:38Speaker 1: Like that combination they have in the backfield with him
- 31:41Speaker 1: and David Montgomery is tough.
- 31:42Speaker 4: They are a really good team and they are locked in.
- 31:49Speaker 2: All right, guys, let's get through a rip of games here.
- 31:53Speaker 2: We can get through a bunch of more games here
- 31:54Speaker 2: with the time we've got left Minnesota Tennessee RTT. What
- 31:58Speaker 2: was what was your takeaway here?
- 32:01Speaker 5: Vikings did enough, you know, Vikings did enough and found
- 32:04Speaker 5: a way to minimize mistakes, you know, and got Jordan
- 32:08Speaker 5: Addison going a little bit after he had a quiet
- 32:10Speaker 5: spell for a couple of weeks, had a couple of
- 32:12Speaker 5: big catches in this game. And look, I think the
- 32:15Speaker 5: one other thing that I come away with here is
- 32:17Speaker 5: Tennessee plays hard man, especially on defense. That is a
- 32:20Speaker 5: good looking group. Jeffrey Simmons again is a game wrecker.
- 32:23Speaker 5: But the Vikings found a way. And here's the thing, like,
- 32:26Speaker 5: if you're the Tennessee Titans and you can't run the
- 32:27Speaker 5: ball all and you've got a quarterback like Will Levis
- 32:30Speaker 5: like we kind of been talking about, does not fit
- 32:32Speaker 5: the bill yet of those of those elite passers that
- 32:36Speaker 5: can find a way to make you pay when you're
- 32:38Speaker 5: bringing that aggressive pressure that the Vikings do. So no
- 32:41Speaker 5: run game, not yet a quarterback who can deal with
- 32:43Speaker 5: that kind of pressure.
- 32:44Speaker 3: You're in a lot of trouble. And that's what it
- 32:45Speaker 3: felt like to me.
- 32:48Speaker 4: Yeah, a lot of trouble, a lot of problems.
- 32:50Speaker 1: Sam Donald bouncing back after watching him basically keep the
- 32:54Speaker 1: Jaguars in it the week before he came back, played.
- 32:57Speaker 4: More discipline ball.
- 32:58Speaker 1: That's the Sam Donald that needs to show up for
- 32:59Speaker 1: the Minnesota Vikings. If they do that, they're good enough
- 33:02Speaker 1: to win and make a deep postseason run.
- 33:05Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 33:05Speaker 2: I mean one of the big concerns I had was
- 33:07Speaker 2: with Darrisaw going down and missing Darrisaw button. You make
- 33:10Speaker 2: a trade Cam Robinson, right, Cam Robinson's playing one.
- 33:14Speaker 4: Yeah, Cam Robinson comes over.
- 33:15Speaker 2: Yeah, Yeah, So that was and he's hanging on in there,
- 33:19Speaker 2: and he's hanging on in there, so that was a
- 33:20Speaker 2: good move. All right, Let's get to Seattle, San Francisco. Buck.
- 33:24Speaker 2: This is a big win in a very clustered and
- 33:28Speaker 2: crowded NFC West. But that's a g. I shouldn't say good.
- 33:31Speaker 2: That's a great win for the Seattle Seahawks to go
- 33:33Speaker 2: on the road and knock off the Niners.
- 33:35Speaker 1: Yeah, great win for the series. But I'm gonna stay
- 33:36Speaker 1: on the Niner side. It may be time to hit
- 33:38Speaker 1: the panic button. This is a team where we knew
- 33:41Speaker 1: that the Super Bowl hangover would probably be kind of
- 33:44Speaker 1: in play. And look, they're five and five and a
- 33:47Speaker 1: team that has been able to really kind of do
- 33:49Speaker 1: what they want to do against most opponents. Offensively, they're
- 33:52Speaker 1: not the same. They can't impose their wheel and the defense,
- 33:56Speaker 1: which has always been like part of the formula, like
- 33:59Speaker 1: run the ball, play great defense in those things, they're
- 34:01Speaker 1: not getting the same kind of contributions from the defense
- 34:04Speaker 1: that they've gotten in the past. To me, if the
- 34:06Speaker 1: Noters are going to get back to being the team
- 34:08Speaker 1: that we talk about being in the conversation to win
- 34:10Speaker 1: the NFC, they got to get back to being who
- 34:13Speaker 1: they are from an identity standpoint, physical run game, selective
- 34:17Speaker 1: play make and on play action and in defense playing
- 34:19Speaker 1: LIFs out. They're not doing They're not checking the boxes
- 34:21Speaker 1: in any of those areas right now.
- 34:23Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, the one thing I'll say, DJ and
- 34:25Speaker 5: I know you know you and I kind of talked
- 34:27Speaker 5: about this and it just has not felt like the
- 34:29Speaker 5: same forty nine ers run game for the last what
- 34:31Speaker 5: six eight weeks of this season. And obviously this is
- 34:33Speaker 5: just Christian McCaffrey's second game back, and you've get to
- 34:36Speaker 5: play a game and won't play a game where you
- 34:38Speaker 5: have CMC burning then I UK, Indebo Samuel all together
- 34:41Speaker 5: all at once. Same with George Kittle, and it just
- 34:43Speaker 5: feels like the pieces come in and out of the
- 34:45Speaker 5: lineup and it's hard to find consistent rhythm here. So
- 34:50Speaker 5: I'm not ready to press that panic button yet. On
- 34:52Speaker 5: the forty nine ers, I feel like this team has
- 34:55Speaker 5: proven that they find they can find ways to win
- 34:57Speaker 5: when they get down to it, and I I think
- 35:00Speaker 5: this division will allow them the opportunity to do that.
- 35:03Speaker 2: Yeah, division's not going anywhere, that's the good news. It
- 35:06Speaker 2: is all clumped in there together. Seattle did a great
- 35:09Speaker 2: job living in big plays, just kind of put a
- 35:11Speaker 2: lid on the on the forty nine ers, both run
- 35:14Speaker 2: and pass. I thought that was the key. All right,
- 35:16Speaker 2: Atlanta Denver. I'll start us off on this one because
- 35:18Speaker 2: I wanted to watch the bo Nicks awesome game. You
- 35:21Speaker 2: see the first rookie QB with eighty percent completion percentage,
- 35:25Speaker 2: three hundred and four passing touchdowns in a game. So
- 35:28Speaker 2: that's where I wanted to start, and I went to
- 35:29Speaker 2: the entire game, watched every single snap of this one.
- 35:31Speaker 2: For Denver's offense, I thought they did a good job
- 35:34Speaker 2: of it was like a sandwich. Like they start. It
- 35:36Speaker 2: was a run, The bread was the run, and the
- 35:39Speaker 2: pass was the meat. They got into the game with
- 35:41Speaker 2: some run game got them comfortable. Then they were able
- 35:44Speaker 2: to throw it all over the place, and then they
- 35:45Speaker 2: were able to run it towards the end. But everything
- 35:48Speaker 2: was clicking. And look, I know that some folks, you know,
- 35:54Speaker 2: we'll look at Sean Payton and oh, you know, he's
- 35:56Speaker 2: cocky or he's their again, and he maybe rubbed some
- 35:58Speaker 2: people the wrong way. The guy can the guy can
- 36:00Speaker 2: scheme and call offense and there is no debating it.
- 36:03Speaker 2: I mean, you talk about four strong buck hitting backside slants.
- 36:08Speaker 2: He unloaded the screen game in this one. Every type
- 36:11Speaker 2: of screen you can run. They ran it. They were effective,
- 36:14Speaker 2: they ran they tight end leak got one wide open
- 36:16Speaker 2: on that one. So they got a lot of scheme
- 36:20Speaker 2: stuff that I thought bon Nicks benefited from. But then Bonnicks,
- 36:23Speaker 2: you see his confidence soaring. He's ripping a seam ball
- 36:26Speaker 2: between the triangle defenders, and it was just like textbook
- 36:30Speaker 2: how you handle a young quarterback. You ease him into
- 36:32Speaker 2: the game, then you kind of cut him loose, and
- 36:34Speaker 2: then you don't ask him to do too much. We're
- 36:36Speaker 2: still screening late in the game, we're running late in
- 36:38Speaker 2: the game, minimal minimal risk involved with a lot of
- 36:42Speaker 2: stuff that they were doing. I thought, buck to me,
- 36:44Speaker 2: this was a masterclass by Sean Payton and bon Knicks.
- 36:48Speaker 1: Look, man, he gets it, he understands it. He understands
- 36:50Speaker 1: how to make the game very, very easy for the quarterbacks.
- 36:52Speaker 1: Just think about all the quarterbacks that came through New
- 36:54Speaker 1: Orleans that had success, small sample sizes, but think about
- 36:57Speaker 1: how James played for him, how Teddy Bridgewater play for him,
- 37:00Speaker 1: what he's been able to do with quarterbacks outside of
- 37:02Speaker 1: Drew Brees. He understands the position for bow Knicks. One
- 37:05Speaker 1: of the things that excited me about the possibility of
- 37:08Speaker 1: them getting together is bow Knicks has experienced the significant
- 37:11Speaker 1: amount of snaps that he played in college, the high
- 37:14Speaker 1: iq that he has, the leadership and the maturity that
- 37:16Speaker 1: he displayed. You put that with Sean Payton, who wants
- 37:18Speaker 1: to put a lot on the quarterback. You can just
- 37:21Speaker 1: see how this is going to continue to grow. And
- 37:24Speaker 1: just wait till when they get more pieces around the quarterback.
- 37:28Speaker 1: You can see where the foundation is being built in Denver.
- 37:31Speaker 1: And if you're a Broncos fan, you have to be
- 37:32Speaker 1: excited about him.
- 37:34Speaker 5: A couple of quick things there maturity, intelligence, accuracy. I
- 37:39Speaker 5: think that's what you've seen from bow Nicks in a
- 37:43Speaker 5: big way, especially in this game. I mean, DJ I
- 37:46Speaker 5: haven't watched all those snaps, I'm sure you could see
- 37:48Speaker 5: the way his head moves from right to left or
- 37:50Speaker 5: left to right. And it's not just like he's trying
- 37:51Speaker 5: to look somebody off. He is moving through what Sean
- 37:54Speaker 5: Payton gives him to assess post snap, and that's been
- 37:58Speaker 5: really impressive and again speaks to the experience and the
- 38:01Speaker 5: amount of football that he has seen. The other part
- 38:04Speaker 5: of it is like outside of the quarterback, you know,
- 38:07Speaker 5: processing and all that kind of stuff, which is obviously
- 38:10Speaker 5: huge and very important, especially early for a rookie. But
- 38:13Speaker 5: I think the other part of it is you talk
- 38:15Speaker 5: to folks in that building. They will talk about how
- 38:17Speaker 5: he is beloved in that locker room. He has won
- 38:19Speaker 5: those dudes over in a big way, how calm he
- 38:22Speaker 5: is throughout game situations in timeouts like just low heartbeat player,
- 38:27Speaker 5: not just in the pocket in a hostile environment, but
- 38:30Speaker 5: even as you know situations are developing, even at the
- 38:33Speaker 5: end of that Kansas City game, you know, before they
- 38:35Speaker 5: went out and one against the Atlanta Falcons, this week.
- 38:38Speaker 3: So there's so much to like.
- 38:40Speaker 5: I'm just telling you, like, if if bo Nix and
- 38:42Speaker 5: the Broncos keep ascending and the commanders keep stumbling, it
- 38:47Speaker 5: might end up being more of a conversation about offensive
- 38:51Speaker 5: a conversation.
- 38:52Speaker 2: He's already he's already a conversation. You should already make
- 38:54Speaker 2: that a conversation. All right, we're gonna work through three
- 38:56Speaker 2: more games. But it's just a it's a speed round here.
- 38:59Speaker 2: So it's one player, the one takeaway, one player, one takeaway,
- 39:03Speaker 2: Buck the Indianapolis Colts knock off the Jets. I think
- 39:07Speaker 2: there's an obvious one here, but I'll let you have it.
- 39:10Speaker 2: One player, one takeaway.
- 39:11Speaker 1: I'm gonna give Anthony Richardson his props for being able
- 39:14Speaker 1: to learn hard lessons over two weeks. Maturity, professionalism, all
- 39:18Speaker 1: of those things that came out what they were talking about.
- 39:21Speaker 4: I love the fact that he embraced it.
- 39:22Speaker 1: I love the fact that he was vulnerable with his
- 39:24Speaker 1: teammates and that he came back and showed out in
- 39:27Speaker 1: a major way, played even beyond I would say the
- 39:30Speaker 1: coach's expectations. And so if he can do that and
- 39:33Speaker 1: learn the value of preparation and putting in the time
- 39:35Speaker 1: and doing all those things that franchise quarterbacks are supposed
- 39:39Speaker 1: to do are expected to do. Now he has an
- 39:42Speaker 1: opportunity to realize some of that potential that made him
- 39:44Speaker 1: the number four overall pick.
- 39:46Speaker 2: All right, Rhett, you're up next here and we're going
- 39:49Speaker 2: to I think this is probably another easy one for
- 39:51Speaker 2: you Rams, New England Patriots. You can go win or
- 39:55Speaker 2: a loser here, But what's your takeaway?
- 39:58Speaker 5: One lot to love about the continued progression of Drake
- 40:02Speaker 5: may too. I just think that when the Rams are
- 40:04Speaker 5: healthy and they're still getting there along the offensive front
- 40:07Speaker 5: and trying to figure out how to get the best
- 40:08Speaker 5: five guys out there, they've been moving a lot of
- 40:10Speaker 5: pieces around. But I'm telling you that triangle and then
- 40:13Speaker 5: with the run game of Kien Williams, but Stafford Pooka
- 40:15Speaker 5: and Cooper Cup, there's not a whole lot of trios
- 40:19Speaker 5: that I take over those three right there.
- 40:21Speaker 2: Yeah, that's fair. They feel like the old old man's
- 40:24Speaker 2: team that shows up at the y MCA and somehow
- 40:27Speaker 2: they just run through everybody, all these young college kids.
- 40:30Speaker 2: That's what it looks like when you watch the Rams
- 40:32Speaker 2: play offense. Cleveland, New Orleans.
- 40:36Speaker 4: Man.
- 40:36Speaker 2: I mean, look, you get the I guess I could
- 40:39Speaker 2: go fully. You know, jamis full Jamis Winston experience in
- 40:43Speaker 2: this game as well as the the the perfect Taysom
- 40:47Speaker 2: Hill experience in this game with what he did just
- 40:50Speaker 2: making all kinds of plays. Aaron Rizzy's got him going, man.
- 40:53Speaker 2: So they they're playing well, the Browns saw him in
- 40:56Speaker 2: person a couple of weeks ago. It's just I don't
- 40:59Speaker 2: want to say play out the string. That's probably insulting
- 41:01Speaker 2: to a bunch of professionals, but they're playing out the string.
- 41:05Speaker 2: I mean, this is a that's a wrap one more buck,
- 41:08Speaker 2: one more game, Vegas, Miami. Give me a takeaway on
- 41:12Speaker 2: that one.
- 41:14Speaker 1: Well, let's let's talk about Miami maybe finding themselves back
- 41:18Speaker 1: into rhythm in terms of being able to get it done.
- 41:21Speaker 1: And it's, you know, it's the offense is so different
- 41:23Speaker 1: when to a tongue of b low is there, Like
- 41:25Speaker 1: they're able to get it going, They're able to kind
- 41:27Speaker 1: of play dink and dunk ball. They still do kind
- 41:29Speaker 1: of like the lightning round running attack, but it's such
- 41:33Speaker 1: a unique offense. So for them to get back on
- 41:35Speaker 1: track thirty four points being able to kind of find
- 41:38Speaker 1: their way. Not quite ready to say that they're back
- 41:41Speaker 1: in the hunt of being a playoff team, but they
- 41:43Speaker 1: have enough intriguing pieces offensively.
- 41:46Speaker 4: That they can give you problems as we get down
- 41:47Speaker 4: the stretch.
- 41:49Speaker 3: Quick one, quick one, here, go ahead.
- 41:51Speaker 2: Yeah, what do you know?
- 41:52Speaker 3: Bill Belichick gave all that money to Johnny Smith.
- 41:56Speaker 2: Yeah he's back, baby.
- 41:57Speaker 3: You know what why?
- 42:00Speaker 2: He was a little premature found there he is. That's
- 42:05Speaker 2: the guy. All right, there is one more game and
- 42:08Speaker 2: it's time for the Monday night football preview. I can
- 42:11Speaker 2: tell you this, uh story here real quick. I called
- 42:16Speaker 2: the first game between the Houston Texans and it was
- 42:18Speaker 2: against the Dallas Cowboys. And that was David Carr at quarterback,
- 42:23Speaker 2: our colleague, I should say I called it. I spotted.
- 42:25Speaker 2: I was working for ESPN right out of college.
- 42:28Speaker 3: I was all right.
- 42:29Speaker 2: I was up in the blue. I think bucks heard
- 42:30Speaker 2: this before. I'm up in the booth. I'm spotting for
- 42:33Speaker 2: Mike Patrick, Diisman and McGuire.
- 42:37Speaker 3: And old Sunday night game.
- 42:39Speaker 2: Yeah, old Sunday night. I'm right out of college. So
- 42:41Speaker 2: I've got my binoculars on and I look, and I
- 42:44Speaker 2: see David Carr's got a rubber it was like the
- 42:46Speaker 2: first rubber wedding band that he had on, and it
- 42:50Speaker 2: was except it was I think it might even have
- 42:52Speaker 2: been just athletic tape, like they didn't even make those
- 42:55Speaker 2: back then. I think it was just like athletic tape
- 42:56Speaker 2: around his wedding finger. So I told I told, like
- 43:01Speaker 2: Thimer one of them. I said like, oh, I think
- 43:03Speaker 2: like this guy. You know, David Carr is such a
- 43:04Speaker 2: good guy, Like he doesn't he wants to have his
- 43:06Speaker 2: ring on. So it looks like he's either taped his
- 43:08Speaker 2: ring up or he's got it and his thing. And uh,
- 43:11Speaker 2: but I don't know this is true. He could have
- 43:13Speaker 2: had a cut on his finger. So I just tell that.
- 43:15Speaker 2: And then this is like my first game working out
- 43:17Speaker 2: of college as a spotter, and they set it on
- 43:20Speaker 2: the air and I thought, oh my gosh, I hope
- 43:22Speaker 2: that this is true. I hope this is not. I'm
- 43:24Speaker 2: gonna get favored. I don't even know. And I believe
- 43:28Speaker 2: it was Stuart Scott on Sports Center ran the highlight
- 43:30Speaker 2: and they close up on his hand and go, oh,
- 43:32Speaker 2: he's got he loves les so loves his wife. He's
- 43:35Speaker 2: got that. I'm like, oh, my guys, I know this
- 43:36Speaker 2: is not I don't even know if this is true.
- 43:38Speaker 3: I was.
- 43:38Speaker 2: I was a twenty twenty two year old kid scared
- 43:42Speaker 2: to death that I was going to get fired because
- 43:44Speaker 2: of the inaugural Texans game against the Dallas Cowboys. So
- 43:47Speaker 2: that's not really the preview I think people listen to
- 43:49Speaker 2: us for. But that's what I thought.
- 43:51Speaker 4: So one thing I mean, that's that's a good job.
- 43:53Speaker 2: That's a spicy g good guy. That is good.
- 43:56Speaker 1: Good eyes that out because that's about the most excitement
- 43:58Speaker 1: that we can talk about with this game, because right
- 44:01Speaker 1: now there have no expectations on the other side when
- 44:03Speaker 1: it comes to the Cowboys. Dak Prescott is out, the
- 44:06Speaker 1: defense has been bad. You talked about playing out the string.
- 44:09Speaker 1: They're playing out the string in down.
- 44:13Speaker 2: Rets Ret's and he give me a reason to watch
- 44:15Speaker 2: this game, give me, give me a reason to want
- 44:17Speaker 2: to sit on the couch and take this one in.
- 44:20Speaker 5: DJ Stroud will remind you why he was the first
- 44:23Speaker 5: tape we wanted to watch every week last year.
- 44:26Speaker 3: And it just hasn't last year. I know, man, I know,
- 44:31Speaker 3: and I.
- 44:31Speaker 5: Know that he misses having Nico Collins out there, But
- 44:35Speaker 5: you know, I.
- 44:35Speaker 3: Think is Nico back this week.
- 44:37Speaker 4: I think feel like it might be might be back.
- 44:40Speaker 5: I think, yeah, so we'll you know, we'll see if
- 44:44Speaker 5: that rekindles some of that explosive downfield passing attack that
- 44:48Speaker 5: we loved from the Texans a year ago and just
- 44:51Speaker 5: haven't seen enough consistently this year. They've really been a
- 44:54Speaker 5: team that runs through the run game with Joe Mixon
- 44:57Speaker 5: and well, that's that's fine, and Dany I still I want.
- 44:59Speaker 3: To see some of that that's spectacular c J. Stroudness
- 45:03Speaker 3: in this game.
- 45:04Speaker 2: To I Uh, I've got to go because I've got
- 45:09Speaker 2: a text David Carr now that I have his phone
- 45:10Speaker 2: number after all these years, and find out if this
- 45:12Speaker 2: is really true. I've just never asked.
- 45:15Speaker 3: I gotta still haven't asked, all right, confirmation.
- 45:18Speaker 2: I'm gonna find that information out. That's my goal. All right.
- 45:22Speaker 2: This has been a fun one. I do want to
- 45:23Speaker 2: remind everybody we've got a bunch more shows coming this
- 45:25Speaker 2: week where we'll dig into quarterback change with the New
- 45:27Speaker 2: York Giants, amongst other topics. So planning to get to
- 45:30Speaker 2: this week, but we appreciate you hanging with us today
- 45:32Speaker 2: right here on move Stick